The dirty two dozen: Clinton's top controversies

The 23 scandals are among only those that have emerged from or since Hillary Clinton's years as secretary of state. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Donald Trump kicked off what many have hailed as a pivot to the general election with a speech Wednesday blasting his likely opponent, Hillary Clinton, for her controversial conduct as secretary of state.

While the presumptive Republican nominee is no stranger to scandal himself, he argued Clinton's contact with donors to her family's foundation while serving as the nation's chief diplomat created a situation that allowed special interest groups to thrive as long as they were writing checks to Clinton and her husband.

"Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft," Trump said Wednesday in his first speech since dismissing his former campaign manager. "She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund – doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash."

The following 23 scandals are among only those that have emerged from or since Clinton's years as secretary of state. The conflicts of interest will almost certainly serve as political fodder for Trump as he hammers home the argument that Clinton represents the class of well-connected elites he hopes to overthrow.

Boeing bucks

Boeing gave generously to the Clinton Foundation after Clinton, as secretary of state, personally intervened on its behalf to secure a lucrative contract with the Russian government.

The secretary of state made what she called a "shameless pitch" to the state-owned Russian carrier Rosavia in October 2009.

Russia then struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Boeing in June 2010, after which the aerospace conglomerate cut a $900,000 check to the Clinton Foundation.

Bill's foreign fees

Bill Clinton doubled the amount of money he earned from speaking engagements funded by foreign entities while his wife served as secretary of state.

The spike in foreign groups that became interested in hosting the former president raised questions as to whether their invitations were made in an effort to curry favor with the secretary of state.

For example, Bill Clinton earned $2.2 million from just six international speeches in 2014, but reportedly made $4.8 million from 13 speeches in foreign countries in 2010

Airbrushing IG reports

The State Department's acting inspector general, Harold Geisel, appears to have removed damaging passages from a report before publishing it in February 2013.

References to specific cases in which high-level State officials halted internal investigations and descriptions of the extent and frequency of those interventions appear in several early drafts but were later eliminated, the Washington Examiner reported last year.

The unexplained gaps between the reports call into question Geisel's independence as an interim inspector general.

Among the passages removed was an allegation that diplomatic security staff had covered up the solicitation of prostitutes by Clinton's security team on official travel and that higher-ups had shielded an official with an alleged history of sexual assault from being investigated for attacking embassy staff.

Steve Linick, the permanent inspector general appointed by President Obama just months after Clinton left the agency, led a year-long investigation into Clinton's email practices that concluded the secretary of state had violated the agency's record-keeping policies.

Boko Haram

The State Department has ignored a lawsuit over its failure to comply with a FOIA request for records pertaining to a Nigerian businessman.

Gilbert Chagoury, who gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, was indicted in the Halliburton bribery scandal in 2010 alongside his brother. Chagoury is reportedly a close friend of Bill Clinton who spent time traveling with the former president through Europe.

Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit, sued the State Department after the agency stonewalled its request for records that would determine whether Hillary Clinton's refusal to place Boko Haram on the terrorist watch list had anything to do with Chagoury's support.

. @HillaryClinton refused to put BokoHaram on the terror list while the Clinton Global Initiative was getting money from Nigerians.— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 22, 2016

Hillary refusing to put Boko Haram on the terror group list is a head-scratcher.— Homo Mechanicus (@primatemachine) June 22, 2016

Hillary Clinton continues to weather criticism for dismissing the threat of Boko Haram while secretary of state.

Her successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, designated Boko Haram as a terror group in Nov. 2013, just a few months into his tenure.

In the deal, a state-owned Russian energy agency took over a Canadian company, Uranium One, that controlled such a large stake in America's uranium deposits that the transaction required approval from Hillary Clinton and other cabinet-level officials.

Frank Giustra, a top Clinton Foundation donor and close friend of the former president, served as a financial adviser to Uranium One as the deal unfolded.

The charity failed to disclose other significant donations from individuals and entities involved in the transaction, including the $2.35 million that Uranium One chair Ian Telfer funneled to the charity through another foundation under his control.

Blumenthal's back

Clinton's reliance on an informal adviser whom she called an "old friend" sparked controversy when her published emails revealed him to be her main source of intelligence in the run-up to Benghazi.

Sidney Blumenthal's brutal campaign against then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary made him an enemy of the administration even after Clinton was selected to join Obama's cabinet. Her attempts to hire Blumenthal were reportedly nixed by Obama's staff.

Blumenthal's ties to a group of businessmen who were attempting to drum up contracts in the Libya — with the help of the State Department — raise questions about the motives behind the intelligence memos he sent Hillary Clinton.

Many of his missives have since been marked classified by the State Department.

Ambassadors investigated

Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's undersecretary for management, allegedly stopped investigators from looking into whether an ambassador accused of soliciting "sexual favors" from "minor children" had committed a crime on Hillary Clinton's watch, the Examiner reported last year.

An inspector general report published late last year concluded the Belgian ambassador had been summoned to Washington for a meeting with Kennedy, where the undersecretary permitted him to return to his post after the ambassador simply denied the charges in an interview.

Kennedy told the inspector general he didn't open a criminal investigation because "solicitation of a prostitute ... was not a crime in the host country."

However, in testimony at the trial of Chelsea Manning more than a year earlier, Kennedy had told defense attorneys that their suggestion of his role in a cover-up of the Belgian ambassador scandal was "entirely false."

Kennedy's position placed him in charge of the State Department's record-keeping practices as well. The agency stalwart has fallen under fire for failing to intervene in Hillary Clinton's attempt to keep all of her official communications out of the government's reach.

Security struggles

An internal inspector general memo revealed allegations that at least five members of Hillary Clinton's security detail solicited prostitutes in a number of countries while on official travel, including on trips to Russia and Colombia.

According to the document, a top official in the bureau of diplomatic security "reportedly told [an investigator] to shut down the four investigations" into the accused security guards, three of whom received suspensions that lasted just one day.

Hidden Iran waivers

The State Department has denied the existence of waivers granted to certain companies that would allow them to conduct business in Iran despite international sanctions against doing so.

But the waivers have surfaced in a number of reports, including Schweizer's book and an article published earlier last year by the Washington Times.

Agency officials claimed they had searched 11 different offices within the State Department and failed to turn up any documents related to the Iran waivers.

Sweden was among the countries working to convince Hillary Clinton not to impose harsh sanctions against Iran ahead of high-stakes nuclear negotiations during her diplomatic tenure.

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton established a separate arm of the Clinton Foundation in Sweden just as his wife was shoring up support for sanctions against Iran, the Times reported.

When the U.S. government released the sanctions list in 2011 and 2012, it included no Swedish companies.

Norway's new embassy

The government of Norway donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation and was seemingly rewarded when the State Department shelled out $177.9 million for a new embassy in Oslo in 2011.

The agency forged ahead with plans to build the complex over the objections of diplomatic officials in Norway, who suggested the money be spent to strengthen embassies and consulates in countries that faced a higher terror risk.

A leaked diplomatic cable sent to Hillary Clinton in July 2009 showed plans for the embassy project, which were developed before she arrived at the agency, had been pushed from 2011 to 2020 to free up funding.

The cable mentions Patrick Kennedy, State's undersecretary for management, as a major force in pushing the embassy project forward.

Money was pledged to the glitzy Norwegian compound while security reinforcements were denied to the diplomatic complex in Benghazi in the months before it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012.

Huma's side gigs

Huma Abedin, a longtime aide and present campaign staffer for Hillary Clinton, somehow managed to secure a rare designation as a "special government employee in 2012, which allowed her to collect paychecks from a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies and the Clinton Foundation, even as she received the $135,000 salary she drew from taxpayers as Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of staff.

Teneo is a controversial firm founded by a close personal friend of Bill Clinton's. The former president served as a paid adviser to the company.

Abedin housed her communications on the same private server that shielded Hillary Clinton's records from the public during that same time period.

A separate lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch over Abedin's personnel files has forced a handful of Hillary Clinton's closest aides to testify about the private email network.

Charity, Clinton-style

A charity watchdog claimed the Clinton Foundation tried to "strong-arm" its employees after the group placed the well-connected foundation on a watch list for philanthropies with potential problems.

The watchdog group claimed last year that the Clinton family's charity had an "atypical business model" that required further review. The Clinton Foundation remains on that list.

The group said staffers at the Clinton Foundation attempted to receive special treatment when they learned their massive philanthropy was about to be placed on the list.

Filling up at Chevron

Chevron Corporation had been embroiled in a legal battle over allegations that it polluted a stretch of Ecuador's rainforest with toxic waste for years before Hillary Clinton joined the State Department.

But the oil conglomerate, which stood to lose billions of dollars from the lawsuit, funneled generous donations to the Clinton Foundation and a political pet project of Hillary Clinton's while it lobbied the State Department to intervene in the case on its behalf.

Chevron executives have participated in Clinton Global Initiative events that placed them on the stage with Clinton insiders such as George Stephanopoulos.

Chevron's CEO even made a personal appeal to Hillary Clinton at a State Department dinner in 2012.

The company's chief executive "took the opportunity to express our concerns about developments in the Chevron Ecuador litigation" to Hillary Clinton at the banquet, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show.

While a Chevron spokesperson denied a link between the donations and the environmental lawsuit, the corporation scored a major victory in the case last year when a Clinton-appointed judge in New York blocked the enforcement of a multi-billion dollar ruling against the oil company in the U.S.

A number of courts that have heard the case have found evidence of fraud against Chevron.

Congo cash

As a New York senator, Hillary Clinton championed a law that would have cracked down on the illicit mineral trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton seemingly flouted that law in favor of foundation donors that had financial stakes in the mineral industry.

The head of a Canadian company with an enormous interest in the Congo's mining and oil sector, Lukas Lundin of Lundin Mining, announced a $100 million donation to the Clinton Foundation on the heels of Clinton's first presidential campaign, according to Schweizer.

After the Congolese government attempted to regain control of its own mines, the State Department intervened on behalf of Lundin Mining and another mining company, Freeport, that also happened to be a foundation donor.

A round of talks in 2010, thought to be aided by the Clinton State Department, concluded with the pair of well-connected companies retaining their stakes in the mines and with the Congolese government being shut out of its own resources.

Pulling a Belfast one

Hillary Clinton's final official trip as secretary of state highlighted conflicts of interest between her diplomatic post, the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Strategies.

The former secretary of state traveled to Belfast to claim an award from a major foundation donor at an event that was promoted by Teneo, the Examiner reported last year.

Bill Clinton once served as a paid adviser to Teneo, which was co-founded by one of his top former aides.

The trip raised questions about whether Abedin, as the aide in charge of arranging the secretary's schedule, steered Hillary Clinton to the event in a move that would have undoubtedly benefited her other employer, Teneo.

Donor perks

A major bundler for both Hillary Clinton and President Obama landed an appointment to an esteemed national security post in 2011, only to step down days after his qualifications for the position were called into question.

Rajiv Fernando, a Chicago businessman, was among nuclear and foreign policy experts appointed to the International Security Advisory Board that year despite lacking any kind of experience in the field that was the focus of the panel.

Fernando has also given up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Emails obtained by Citizens United revealed a behind-the-scenes push that took place in the summer of 2011 as State Department staffers scrambled to secure a top secret clearance for Fernando before a background check had been completed.

But four days after a reporter from ABC asked the agency for a copy of Fernando's resume, Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, announced his resignation.

Records indicate State Department aides were concerned about the inquiries into Fernando's background given that Hillary Clinton's office had pushed to include him on the board. Agency officials spoke of a need to "protect" the secretary of state from scrutiny of Fernando's appointment.

Subsequent reporting suggests Hillary Clinton's inner circle recognized the problematic optics of placing a donor in a position typically reserved for subject matter experts. Philippe Reines, then deputy assistant secretary of state, joked in a 2012 email: "Couldn't he have landed a spot on the President's Physical Fitness Council?"

Although Sanders held back from hitting his primary rival on her private email use or her husband's past indiscretions — which are favorite attacks of the GOP — he excoriated Hillary Clinton for accepting millions of dollars from the financial sector for her foundation, campaigns and even for her personal profit, in the form of speaking fees.

Hillary Clinton's closed-door speeches to the likes of Goldman Sachs rankled progressives, especially after she shrugged off questions about the six-figure sums she earned for delivering the speeches and then refused to release transcripts of her remarks.

Executives with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are among Hillary Clinton's top campaign donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Of the nation's eight largest banks, five have donated at least $100,000 and as much as $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and a sixth, Wells Fargo, has given a smaller contribution to the charity.

Visas for sale?

Hillary Clinton seemingly helped a major corporate donor secure a visa from the State Department during her first year in office.

She asked one of her aides in a September 2009 email to check on the "status" of a visa for an executive at Blackstone Group.

Clinton wrote to the aide that Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone's CEO, had "wanted help on a visa" and that her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, had already been approached about securing it.

The Blackstone Group donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation, donor records show.

Blackstone executives have also donated to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Easing export rules for donors

In the same email from Sept. 2009, Clinton asked her aide to help another corporate donor, Honeywell, with some export regulations that were hampering Honeywell's bottom line.

The former secretary of state said David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, had personally requested assistance, but the exact favor he asked of Clinton's team was redacted by the State Department.

"He also complained about export control regs that interfere w sales," Clinton wrote of Cote. "He said the State Dept is the holdup."

Honeywell not only gave to the Clinton Foundation and officially lobbied the State Department, it contributed heavily to a political project dear to the secretary: the U.S. pavilion at the 2010 world's fair in Shanghai.

Pharmaceutical friends

Hillary Clinton has attacked pharmaceutical companies on the campaign trail, but she took the time to meet personally with the CEO of one while serving as secretary of state.

A number of the pharmaceutical companies she has vilified — including Pfizer, which she blasted by name — have written checks to her family's foundation.

Hillary Clinton invited Kenneth Frazier, president and CEO of Merck, to meet with her at the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., in March 2012, according to a schedule released among her private emails.

Merck has donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

In addition, Merck spent millions on lobbying during Clinton's tenure, including efforts to lobby the State Department, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Four months after her meeting with Frazier, Clinton received a pair of press clippings highlighting the State Department's new, multimillion dollar global health partnership with Merck.

Open-door policy for pals

George Soros, whose own foundation has given between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation, told a mutual friend in May 2012 he was "impressed" by the level of access he was able to gain to Clinton while she served as secretary of state.

Soros apparently said he enjoyed the fact that he could "always" get a meeting or get on the phone with Clinton when he wanted to discuss his ideas for policies.

Clinton's official schedule indicated she met with Soros at the State Department in March 2012.

After an associate of Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, asked Hillary Clinton for a meeting about "jobs," the secretary of state told her staff she "would like to do this" in a July 2011 email.

Abedin said she "wanted to discuss" the meeting with her because it was actually an invitation to co-host a summit with Hillary Clinton.

The presumptive Democratic nominee said she would be willing to go to General Electric's offices to meet with Immelt, noting the company's headquarters was "nearby" in New York.

General Electric has donated between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Immelt helped Hillary Clinton's staff with "making calls" to solicit private funds for a State Department project in 2010. General Electric also gave heavily to that project, a U.S. pavilion at the world's fair in Shanghai.

General Electric was able to secure a number of lucrative partnerships with the State Department during Clinton's tenure.

Power-ful connections

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson used his deep political ties to push for his energy company, Symbion Power, to win business in Tanzania as an Obama administration initiative called Power Africa began picking up steam.

Wilson had served on Bill Clinton's National Security Council and had gained national fame when his wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as CIA operative in what became known as the Plame Affair.

A series of emails sent between Wilson and Hillary Clinton's private email account indicate the former ambassador sought a private audience with Clinton to discuss the work of his company.

"I would love to bring you up to speed on what we are doing in Tanzania and our plans in both Nigeria and Ghana," Wilson wrote in one Jan. 2012 email to Hillary Clinton.

The secretary of state responded warmly, writing back within the week: "I'd like to hear about your ongoing work. What about doing it over dinner w/ Sid and Jackie some time when you and I are both in DC?"

Hillary Clinton was referring to Sidney Blumenthal, the divisive political operative who served as an unofficial adviser during her diplomatic tenure, and his wife Jackie.

As a relatively small company compared to General Electric, Symbion could not have shouldered the risk of some major infrastructure projects in an unstable country like Tanzania without the support of such a large corporation. Wilson asked Hillary Clinton in a July 2011 email if she would intervene in a business dispute between General Electric and Symbion over contracts in Tanzania.

The former ambassador told Hillary Clinton his company had "been stymied in our discussions with General Electric over the question of payment guarantees for purchase of the equipment."

He then pressed her to implore GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to "share some of the inherent risk with us" and "waive the payment guarantee requirement."

Hillary Clinton then asked Johnnie Carson, the State Department's assistant secretary for African affairs, to "find out more info." Carson later told his boss he had "discreetly" reached out to the U.S. embassy in Tanzania to learn about the GE-Symbion operation in the country.

Just months after Hillary Clinton suggested Wilson personally pitch her on Symbion's power prospects over dinner, the firm won a $47.7 million contract from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an arm of the State Department, to develop the power grid in Tanzania.

Conflicts over clients

While working at the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and Teneo, Abedin was encouraged by her boss at the consulting firm to push Hillary Clinton to secure a White House appointment for a foundation donor who also happened to be a Teneo client.

Judith Rodin, then president of the Rockefeller Foundation, headed an organization that had "donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, noted in a letter to Kerry last fall.

Grassley said Abedin's supervisor at Teneo had pointed out to Abedin that Rodin's group was such a generous benefactor of the Clinton Foundation when asking her to facilitate the appointment through her connections at the State Department.

While Rodin ultimately did not get the position, which was under the authority of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the exchange suggests Abedin was vulnerable to sensitive requests that may have put her at odds with her multiple employers.

An earlier version of this article appeared in the Washington Examiner on June 13, 2015.